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It has often been debated with polar arguments whether climate change is human induced or a natural occurrence during our Earth’s life cycle. The 5th IPCC report compiled by 209 lead authors of world top scientists from 39 countries presented to the governments and the public on Friday 27th September in Stockholm that there is a 95% likelihood that humans played a role in the phenomenon. The report authored by working group 1 (WG1), assessed the physical science such as concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, temperature rise and climate models.

In a press release from IPCC, Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the IPCC said: “[The] Working Group I Summary for Policymakers provides important insights into the scientific basis of climate change. It provides a firm foundation for considerations of the impacts of climate change on human and natural systems and ways to meet the challenge of climate change.”

The subsequent reports on examining how living beings can adapt and mitigating extreme scenarios of warming by GHG reduction from human activies including power stations, factories, cars, farming among others would be documented by the Working Group Two (WG2) and Working Group Three (WG3) respectively. The reports are anticipated to be released in March and April next year.

The IPCC’s major assessments are extremely influential and widely read. The science in the reports underpins the crucial UN climate negotiations on political efforts to tackle climate change. But many people, including some of the scientists who put together the reports without pay, say that more targeted and more frequent reports would be more useful.